Provider offers $375,000 settlement to family of resident given fatal overdose of oxycodone

An Ohio nursing home where a resident died after being given 20 times her prescribed dose of oxycodone has offered her family a $375,000 settlement, according to local reports.

The estate of Susanne Lawrence sued Normandy Manor in Rocky River, OH, after Lawrence's 2015 death from an oxycodone overdose. Lawrence was prescribed 25 milligrams of the drug but was given 500 milligrams by nursing staff over the span of several hours. Nurses at the facility reportedly failed to read the medication's label and did not dilute it before giving it to Lawrence, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

Requests for comment from Normandy Manor were not returned by production deadline Monday.

The physician who prescribed the oxycodone reported on Lawrence's death certificate that she died of cardiorespiratory failure, caused by a case of pneumonia. An investigation and medical records later confirmed Lawrence's death to be cased by the overdose. Attorneys for the physician, Kishor Patel, M.D., told the newspaper he was not a party in the lawsuit.

If approved by a judge the proposed settlement will be split between Lawrence's six children, with a portion going toward attorney fees and the Ohio's Department of Medicaid to cover her care. A hearing on the proposed settlement is slated for Oct. 2.

More than 300 healthcare workers have complained to the Health and Human Services Department about employers infringing on their religious or conscience rights, a monthly total that increased nearly tenfold.